A poem

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not shouting “I’m clean livin’.”
I’m whispering “I was lost,
Now I’m found and forgiven.”

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I don’t speak of this with pride.
I’m confessing that I stumble
and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not trying to be strong.
I’m professing that I’m weak
And need His strength to carry on.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not bragging of success.
I’m admitting I have failed
And need God to clean my mess.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible
But, God believes I am worth it.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I still feel the sting of pain.
I have my share of heartaches
So I call upon His name.

When I say… “I am a Christian”
I’m not holier than thou,
I’m just a simple sinner
Who received God’s good grace, somehow!

Christian by Maya Angelou

holier than thou -> 假装比别人更虔诚的

Got this poem from a post from a fellow lister in the Agora
mailing list. Google for her name and found out how messy
her life was and how she manage to pull it through in life.

Wikipedia has an entry for her here…Some background of her childhood –

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. In 1931, her parents divorced and she and her older brother Bailey were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. While she was living with her grandmother, Maya participated in many dance classes including tap, jazz and salsa. She performed at many recitals and won numerous awards for her inspirational dancing. After five years apart from their mother, the children returned home. This move eventually took a turn for the worse when Angelou, 8, was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. This devastating act caused her to become selectively mute for nearly four years, speaking only to her brother. She was sent….. back to Stamps because no one could handle the grim state Angelou was in. With the constant help of a woman named Mrs. Flowers, Angelou began to evolve into the girl who had possessed the pride and confidence she once had. In 1940, she and her brother were sent to San Francisco to live with their mother again. Life with her mother was in constant disorder; it soon became too much for her so her father came and took her to live with him and his girlfriend in their rundown trailer. Finding that life with him was no better, she ended up living in a graveyard of wrecked cars that housed mainly homeless children. It took her a month to get back home to her mother. Angelou’s bad childhoodwoman spent moving back and forth between her mother and grandmother caused her to struggle with maturity. She became determined to prove she was a woman and began to rush toward maturity. Angelou soon found herself pregnant, and at the age of sixteen she delivered her son, Guy. She later danced and sang tropical island songs with an ersatz Caribbean accent at Enrico Banducci’s famed hungry i San Francisco nightclub.